A few months back, I bought a 97 GST and it is now out of commission because a lot of smoke is coming out of the exhaust. At first, it would only smoke after it had been idling for a good 5-10 minutes or if I drove it while it was hot out. Basically, it would only smoke after I got the engine warm. I first noticed the smoke while it had been idling, after a quick drive, while I was showing the car to a friend.

I took it to a shop a little while ago to diagnose the problem and they said it is burning oil and that it is probably the valve guides going bad. But they couldn't properly diagnose the cause without getting into the engine which would obviously cost me more money.

Now, smoke starts to come out of the exhaust after a couple minutes of the car being on, regardless if it is warm or not. Which leads me to believe that the valve guides are about to go, if the guy I took it to is correct about the diagnosis.

First, I would like to know if there is anything else that could cause this problem. Second, does anybody know about how much it would cost to get the valve guides replaced?

Here's a little information about the engine. The odometer on the car reads about 177,000 miles but the guy I bought it from said that he had the engine swapped out 55,000 miles ago with a rebuilt GSX engine. Everything else is still stock except for the transmission which was replaced about a year ago. The mechanic had mentioned something about something could be wrong with the turbo seeing that it is so old, is that possible?

I think I covered everything but if you need more information to give me some feedback, feel free to ask because I would like to get this issue resolved ASAP.

 

Do a wet and dry compression test and come back w/ the numbers. To me it sounds like valve stem seals.

 

Will do, I'll try and get it done tomorrow and I'll post the results.

Whether it's the valve guides, valve stem seals, or what have you, is it labor intensive to fix? Is it something I should definitely have mechanic do or is it possible to do it yourself? I know my way around a car and I've done many basic fixes to cars since I've been driving. Although, I've never done any internal engine work before so I'm a little skeptical about jumping into a fix like this on my own.

 

i would have a shop do it if you have to ask. im not doubting your car knowledge, just saying that its not gonna be an easy task

 

Well valve stem seals isnt a very hard job to do but you'll need special tools to get it done. Valve guides on the other thing would have to be done at a machine shop.

 

If both your compression tests come back good then i am thinking its gonna be the turbo. Also the color of the smoke is a big factor. There are 3 usual colors...(white, black, and blue)

 

The color of the smoke is white, which from what I understand is oil, right? The mechanic said he verified it was burning oil by hooking it up to a machine.

I wasn't able to do the compression tests yesterday, but I have all the supplies needed. I will try to get that done sometime tomorrow. If the turbo is the problem, would I need to replace the turbo in it's entirety?

And thank you all for your input, I really appreciate it.

 

White smoke is coolant/moisture in the combustion chamber, your probably looking at a head gasket. I would take it to another mechanic lol.

 

are you having any overheating issues? Also another quick check for a headgasket is look under the oil cap and see if there is any white goop on the bottom side

 

I could be wrong about the color of the smoke, but I'm pretty sure it is white. If it's blue smoke, what does that mean? I'm just curious, I read it somewhere before but I'm drawing a blank.

I originally thought it was the head gasket but I didn't find any white goop under the oil cap. I also flushed the radiator and did an oil change and I didn't find anything unusual about the oil or radiator fluid. So I was stumped lol that's why I took it to a mechanic.

dsm1990gsx, I think your right about taking it to another mechanic lol I was considering that over the weekend.

I'm definitely going to do the compression tests tomorrow, and I'll post the results and hopefully that'll help figure out what is wrong with this damn thing!